There’s a revolution brewing,
which may well transform how
you live your life. What you eat
and where you live may be the
first things to change. Why you
work will never be the same. The
only body you’ve ever known
may become obsolete. Don’t get
too worried about it, though; a
good sneeze will send its foot
soldiers flying.

The revolution in question
begins at the microscopic level.
The age of nanotechnology is
coming. Already starting to mature
as a field for legitimate theoretical
and practical inquiry, this
science can be best understood
as a sort of micro-mechanical
engineering, whereby increasingly
miniaturized machines are
constructed for the sake of manipulating
matter at ever-smaller
levels. Ultimately, these general
assemblers will be able to separate,
position, and join molecules
together in whatever
configuration the controller desires,
laws of nature permitting.

The Foresight Institute, a
non-profit founded by the first
Ph.D in
nanotechnology
(from M.I.T), states
that
nanotechnology entails
machines composed
of very few
molecules (by our
macroscale standards),
able to create
flawless molecular
structures and self-replicate.
Nanomachines will
be able to construct
from raw materials
any thing conceivable,
and their ability
to self-replicate will
shatter the cost of
such manufacture,
while enabling them to work at
an exponentially faster rate. This
sort of machine, also referred to
as a “general assembler,” is in
early stages of research today,
and Foresight
predicts that
the first general
assemblers will
be fully developed
within
twenty to thirty
years.

The potential
in
nanotechnology
is simply staggering.
Nanobots
could be injected
into the
bloodstream to
serve as an artificial
immune
system that
even healthy
patients could appreciate – a
doctor at the controls is not as
easily deceived as white blood
cells. They could maintain vital
organs, rejuvenate appearances,
even combat aging by
replacing telomerase (a sort of
fuse that burns away throughout
one’s life, which causes cells
to stop replicating once it runs
out) in cells and halting other
ravages of age. Physiques could
be enhanced through select
muscle stimulation, and the
senses sharpened. Life on the
outside will change, too. Pollution
could be eradicated worldwide
in a matter of months.
Homes could be constructed of
“smartcrete” (composed of
nanobots themselves) that rearranges
its layout according to
the desires of the owner. Any
sort of food could be synthesized
perfectly. Incredibly flat
computer screens will fit on any
surface (including tattoos). The
dining room table will synthesize
any meal one might desire,
while trash gets broken down
and absorbed.

All of these necessities and
conveniences (and more) will be
made possible by
nanotechnology, and just as importantly,
once the advances are
made, implementing them will
cost next to nothing. A few properly
programmed self-replicating
general assemblers can create
more of themselves at an exponential
rate from a feedstock of
basic elements, then be directed
to build whatever their owner
wishes. Once the first machines
are designed and
built (at an admittedly
high cost),
the only subsequent
costs are in
raw materials and
energy. Rocks,
dirt, trash and water
can supply
most material requirements,
and
self-replicating
general assemblers
could turn
every road in the
world into photovoltaic
solar cells
(and a little farther
in the future, take a
chunk of Mercury
and turn it into a
Dyson hemisphere
of solar
cells that would
catch virtually all
of the solar energy
from the side of the Sun that
doesn’t face the Earth). It is
enough to say that
nanotechnology can end all material
want on the planet. Every
man, woman, and child can have
more than enough to eat and
every family a comfortable home
of their own. Disease will cease
plaguing mankind, and lifespans
will extend indefinitely. All
humanity will enjoy unprecedented
health and wealth.

Of course, the spread of
nanotechnology will transform
the world economy virtually
overnight. All physical
labor will be done by
machines, with far more productivity
than what any
man could hope to muster.
The only jobs left will be in
the creative and service industries.
Research will of
course continue, and the
only manufacturing job left
will be designing products
for nanobots to make.
Teachers, lawyers, doctors,
police, judges, and most administrative
jobs will still remain,
among others. Freed from
crushing labor, men will have the
leisure to pursue higher education
(which will cost far less,
given that the material needs of
university employees will have
been satisfied by
nanotechnology), cultivate artistic
expression and appreciation,
compete in athletics, participate
in politics, or just spend
more time with family and
friends. Of course,
nanotechnology cannot force
man not to waste his newfound
leisure time, but it can and will
give him more of it.

A fact that should make the
social engineer cringe is that
none of this incredible prosperity
comes from government intervention.
No machinations of
the state could possibly result in
such plenty, and instead of a
forced redistribution of wealth,
this rising tide will lift all ships
far beyond any point previously
thought possible. The poor (if
such people will still exist) of the
nanotech age will pity the relative
squalor that even the
wealthiest suffered in our industrial
age, just as we pity the filth
and primitivism of the life led by
kings in bygone eras. In fact, it
is state intervention in the
economy that will forestall the
day all men can eat. Burdensome
regulations and oppressive
taxes slow the growth of
the free market economy,
and weigh down like a wet
blanket on the progress in
the research needed to realize
nanotechnology. No
child will have to go sick or
hungry ever again, and the
state’s only role will be to
make those children wait
longer.

This, however, will not
likely satisfy the Left, for
inequality will still be
great, if not even increased
by nanotechnology. Even
though a child’s material
needs of food, shelter,
medical care, and teddy
bears will be fulfilled, the
Left will still look at the
wealthiest individuals and
demand similar luxury for
everyone. Fortunately,
however, this will also discredit
their project. It is
much easier to point to a
starving child and say that the
government should do something
about it, than to someone
who has all of his material needs
met along with a 32" Plasma television
set.

Of course, the
heaven on Earth offered
by nanotechnology is
but a material one. Libertarians
and liberals
alike must set aside the
visions of utopia that
nanotechnology could
bring, and understand
that men need more
than nutrition and comfort.
The power of
nanotechnology is that
it eliminates all of the
material problems that
modern politics aims to
solve, and thus gives
man at least the chance
to look up from his
stomach and see the stars.
Nanotechnology cannot make
men contemplate virtue, but it
does give him freedom from
physical want, which often distracts
man from such contemplation.
This is an important argument
that the Left has contributed
to modern political discourse.
Unfortunately, however,
this idea has also detracted from
it. While we have to realize that
physical want makes it difficult
to contemplate The Good, we
also must understand that eliminating
basic human needs does
not guarantee access to virtue.
Society is not necessarily more
moral today than 500 years ago.
Society cannot fix itself simply
by abolishing need, but it is a
start.